Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Pauls Valley, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Pauls Valley lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Pauls Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pauls Valley — the short answer
Pauls Valley, Oklahoma: USDA zone 7b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7b is Pauls Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pauls Valley's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pauls Valley
Each reading below is measured for Pauls Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPauls Valley runs about 246 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPauls Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Pauls Valley is in
Pauls Valley sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pauls Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Garvin County.
What Grows in Pauls Valley
Every plant below cleared Pauls Valley's own zone 7b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oklahoma profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pauls Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Pauls Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pauls Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Light Plane Services, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CENTRILIFT-HUGHES SVC CTRBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Sutherland W.S.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Halliburton ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- District CUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PAULS VALLEY GENERAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Love's Travel Stop #452Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SEAWAY PRODUCTS P/L - PAULS VALLEYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Jewel CooperUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- James Supplies & Rental Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Stop N GoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Pauls Valley State SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pauls Valley's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Pauls Valley.
Total Sites
112
within ~10 miles of Pauls Valley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pauls Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pauls Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pauls Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pauls Valley — Mining (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (71 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pauls Valley
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pauls Valley average
Your land is one point inside Pauls Valley
Everything above resolves to Pauls Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Pauls Valley Average
Pauls Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Pauls Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Pauls Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Pauls Valley's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pauls Valley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pauls Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pauls Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pauls Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pauls Valley average
How we know this about Pauls Valley
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Pauls Valley’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Pauls Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Pauls Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pauls Valley typically lands around Mar 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 5.
When is the first frost in Pauls Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pauls Valley typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pauls Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pauls Valley sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 2, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pauls Valley?
The federal record around Pauls Valley shows 112 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pauls Valley?
From about Oct 17 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pauls Valley's scale — its 7b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pauls Valley's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Pauls Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pauls Valley's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,327 acres it covers and 112 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pauls Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pauls Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 16 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 112 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pauls Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pauls Valley's boundary and the 5,327 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pauls Valley's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pauls Valley's 5,327 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Garvin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Garvin County
- The growing challenges every Oklahoma grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oklahoma
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Garvin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pauls Valley's 5,327 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pauls Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,327 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Pauls Valley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Oklahoma
Wider growing context
What grows across OklahomaPauls Valley sits outside our named growing regions, so Oklahoma as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides